What Are You Working On Right Now?

[Fishbulb]

So I went back to Innocence Faded again tonight, and I was again reminded of a pretty important fact about getting these types of Petrucci solos up to tempo...

Rather than just try to learn this solo, the better approach would be to zero in on just practicing string-skipping arpeggios. JP probably sat for hours and hours at a time, for days/weeks/months just doing them, and then he ended up incorporating them into a solo. (Or maybe he even wrote that particular riff around an etude that he came up with for practicing them, who knows?)

The point is, if I wanted to become a good baseball player, I wouldn't just try to swing a bat fast enough to hit a fastball. I'd workout, learn all the basic skills, do all the things that form a foundation first.

And once again I'm reminded that I so wish I'd done this stuff in my 20's, instead of just winging my way through the shit I used to play (and partying too much!).

I love learning his stuff. But if I'm being real, I'm never gonna play any DT songs with any other musicians. But I may very well someday get the itch to play with other people again. And if/when that day comes, I'd be a better, more well-rounded lead guitarist if I could whip out these kinds of riffs/techniques, and put them into something of my own. Or improvised solos.

I never even played sweep-picked arpeggios until I started learning his stuff. So to practice a sweep-picked, C major arpeggio, just because it exists in one of his solos, is kinda short-sighted.

I think it's time to change my approach a bit. Things I'd really like to get better/faster at:

Single-string licks
Arpeggios, of all types and modalities- major, minor, diminished..., legato & picked, string-skipping and swept
3 nps licks, picked, and legato

As a start.

And being able to string any of this together, within an actual chord progression. Or at least know where I want to go, to be able to play this kind of stuff over chord changes. Cuz knowing the board is definitely my weakest point.

This is a lofty goal but knowing the board is definitely going to help just about everything else come into much sharper focus, at least it did for me. And I was like you, someone who didn't learn this stuff when I was in my 20s when I should have!

 

[TSJMajesty]

This is a lofty goal but knowing the board is definitely going to help just about everything else come into much sharper focus, at least it did for me. And I was like you, someone who didn't learn this stuff when I was in my 20s when I should have!

I agree. I just played Pachelbel's Canon as a string skipping exercise, and made it a point to name the chord shapes as I played, and identify which note of each one was the root. I think if I start to name whatever patterns I happen to be playing, to whatever chord they're based on, that'll greatly help.

 

[Gothi]

Berserker Trance, including a fast rhythm guitar following the uhm bada uhm bada bass strumming chords (VSTi, my guitar player has been down for over a year now). Have never made Trance before. Usually the electronic part of our Electro Folk is Industrial and synthpop inspired. However I cannot allow myself to make a tune about Berserkers going into trance if it ain’t Trance. Oldschool GOA, viking style. Man, how I love the freedom of making non-profit underground music. There are no genres that cannot be mixed.

If anyone wants to know how this turned out, you can check it out here. There are some metal vibes in it to dedicated to this forum (wait for it):

Thread 'The Beserker Trance (Electro Pagan)'

Apr 1, 2025

Greetings Bards
A folky Berserker Trance tune for you from our upcoming third album: Vanir Wars.

Should there be some tiny whiny Metal aspirations in this tune, rest assured that they come from this forum...and Iron Maiden somewhat.




Kindly
Gothi

• Gothi
• Replies: 1
• Forum: Member Clips, Videos, and Projects

• 

 

[duzie]

I’m working on this

My first crack at playing in open G

 

[TSJMajesty]

I'm getting to a point wherein tackling something new is coming much easier than it used to. That really excites me. I'm finding I know more instinctively where my fingers need to go, just by listening..., and riffs are easier to get under my fingers.

It's so much more fun learning new stuff when I can tell I'm still progressing. For a little while, I had felt like I hit a wall.

 

[Stone]

Solo's --->

 

[Jarick]

I've been really enjoying the "Anytune" app to slow down and learn songs. It's a pain to have to get the audio off YouTube because of DRM protection but I can really hear what's going on and focus in on the notes that are being played.

For example Saturday I had the Foo Fighters "All My Life" stuck in my head, so I spent a little time with it. It's not the most complex song but it's not all standard power chords. Slowing the song down you can hear the odd notes and then it's a matter of figuring out the most logical spot they would be played. Watched a couple videos of covers and was happy to see I basically nailed the chords and fingering.

 

[Mikael Dez]

I've been really enjoying the "Anytune" app to slow down and learn songs. It's a pain to have to get the audio off YouTube because of DRM protection but I can really hear what's going on and focus in on the notes that are being played.

For example Saturday I had the Foo Fighters "All My Life" stuck in my head, so I spent a little time with it. It's not the most complex song but it's not all standard power chords. Slowing the song down you can hear the odd notes and then it's a matter of figuring out the most logical spot they would be played. Watched a couple videos of covers and was happy to see I basically nailed the chords and fingering.

I’ve been using Strum Machine which is great for custom chord progressions and it has a shit ton of folk tunes on there. Change chords/keys and tempo and you’re off to the races.

 

[Mikael Dez]

I’m currently trying my first serious attempt at singing and playing at the same time - I think I’ve got a pretty good bluegrass/country voice and I sing this damn song on my commute at least weekly, so it was a good choice to learn to play along to it:

 

[Stone]

Fuck you David Gilmour !!

 

[la szum]

Tone is in the tender tendrils.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Heard this today (was in the "R's" on my phone), and thought, hey lemme see if I can still do this justice, since we used to cover it.



Lot's of cool stuff, including this little riff:

@4:47

I play it, and my other guitar player's like, "That's a Brian May lick." Hmmm. Well, they were huge Queen fans....

 

[TSJMajesty]

Heard this today (was in the "R's" on my phone), and thought, hey lemme see if I can still do this justice, since we used to cover it.



Lot's of cool stuff, including this little riff:

View attachment 42283@4:47

I play it, and my other guitar player's like, "That's a Brian May lick." Hmmm. Well, they were huge Queen fans....

And as I played through it, I remember how important it is to really listen to how you're playing. He plays lots of 7th's, and you gotta control your picking just right so that all 4 notes (R-5-3-7) ring out equally, w/ just the right amount of palm-mute, and there's a 2/15 B1 1/16 that with a floating bridge (which you need, to do the dives) you need to also bend that 1st string up just a bit to compensate for the trem springs, as you bend the 2nd string up 1 step.

And of course, ya gotta have the right "swing", or none of it sounds good.

Lot's of shit like that that makes it really engaging to play!

 

[TSJMajesty]

Back on Innocence Faded solo! I've learned/memorized the entire thing, and can play it at a "decent" speed (I won't say, lol), while keeping it clean, and copping his nuances, and not only is it a blast to play, it made me think, I haven't really learned many of his entire solos, partly because I've been focused on pulling licks out of his music to use as practice routines, but also because there's usually stuff in them that..., just, fuggedaboudit.

But damn if he doesn't pack SO MUCH interesting, and musical ideas into this solo! (And truly, a lot of solos!) It's probably a big reason I love his music so much.

 

[TSJMajesty]

SO MUCH interesting, and musical ideas into this solo!

The hardest (and slowest for me atm) part is the simplest/coolest thing! It's a Dsus to a D arpeggio. Lays right over the chords.

First I tried it as string skipping (move the B/15 to G/19), but my pinky keeps missing the 19 (short li'l digit .)

So even though I shied away from the version tabbed above mainly b/c of the 15's on the same fret, adjacent strings. Gotta do that finger-roll, which I suck at, this way is easier for me. But it's not feeling at all natural like some other swept arpeggio patterns- the sus one. The D major is easy, by the time I get to it!

But I've never seen this arpeggio before, and it's kinda strange I haven't. Lots of songs go from a sus to the major, so it's kind of an obvious choice to stick in a solo.

And really, that's in JP's solo-writing DNA- he uses this method quite a bit, simply outlining the notes in the underlying chord in some manner. (Usually while mixing up the beat divisions, laying in some bluesy bends, and the obligatory shred. Which in this solo, it's in small bursts, so I may get it.)

 

[AFKAEjay(retired)]

I’m practicing to play over the changes of a tune I wrote….woodshedding the changes.
Demo of the tune (only the head)

 

[FuzzyAce]

Heard this today (was in the "R's" on my phone), and thought, hey lemme see if I can still do this justice, since we used to cover it.



Lot's of cool stuff, including this little riff:

View attachment 42283@4:47

I play it, and my other guitar player's like, "That's a Brian May lick." Hmmm. Well, they were huge Queen fans....

I still have that tab book to this day. Wore that album out!

 

[DrewJD82]

Fuck you David Gilmour !!

View attachment 42273

I couldn't play for a couple days after I recorded that "Poles Apart" solo and had to take a day or two off between learning it and recording it because my fingers were just brutalized from the bends!

 

[DrewJD82]

I've spent the last week trying to write one guitar solo because I slipped into the neurotic zone. After going through 3 different fixed bridge guitars I ended up tuning my JEM to drop Db because I need a Floyd. The guys in the band have been requesting divebombs here and there and I told them I'd have to fake them with my Whammy pedal until I get another Solar, but fuck it, they want me to go apeshit and I really don't think there's a better guitar out there for going apeshit than the JEM.

Hopefully I can bang it out today and move on.